Eat your Eton Mess
and all the rest 
of the fattening food
you can fit into
your gluttonous guts

Make a display
in front of us
in front of them
in front of me
so we can clearly see

      the greed of the aristocracy

Caligula would be proud
to join the ‘Hunt’
to find the fox
to feed the hounds
spattering blood
on red coats
all around

This ‘tradition’ 
is sedition
to the king of reason
and the queen of hearts
who rule these parts

There's a deadline
for this rhyme
Let's not be late
Better to be on time

The clock is ticking
ticking away
and soon it will be
the end of the day

My poems are all
under a page
so they don't end up
in the New Age

Succinct and sweet
is the taste I like
for anything
I read or write

Now I'll end right here
in the middle of the sheet
Put up my pen
and put up my feet

Don’t get carried away
scientists say
If you savor your cinnamon-flavored tea
drink it moderately
you’ll live long enough
to reflect on your life
you may outlive
your husband or wife

With moderation
consequence causation
will be controlled
so we slowly grow old
guarding our greenness
as long as we can
But death will destroy
each woman and man

Come what may
our plane will crash one day
We will fall from a height
day becomes night
We jog and we cycle
off to our coffin
so super-fit
we jump into it

We are all migrants
in time and space
traveling far
to find this place

Distance is nothing
Time is now
We are going and coming
like a passing cloud

Water over fire
steeped in our sins
the cause of creation
elemental origins

Time makes us tender
for the coming feast
When the culture of the west
consumes the culture of the east

Oceans are warmer
ice is melting
We hear warning after warning
about global warming
But I live in England
and I wish
the climate would change
a little more
outdoors

They say

Your coca cola can
will disappear
in two hundred years

Your plastic shopping bag
will disappear
in a thousand years

Your cigarette ****
will disappear
in twelve years

Your chocolate milk carton
will disappear
in five years

Your new leather shoes
will disappear
forty years

Your glass bottle
of safe spring water
will disappear
in a million years

But how do they know?

My best friend’s father  
was an apple farmer  
who said to his son  most days
“By the way  
we’ll double up today on the pesticide spray”

“Son double up today on the pesticide spray”  

Walter was a miser
who exterminated bugs
ignoring all the warnings
on the pesticide cans
He killed his son Wolfgang but this wasn’t his plan

“We’ll double up today on the pesticide spray”

When Wolf was forty-six
he was feeling very sick
and noone knew the reason
for his terminal disease
the explanation for this cancer causation

“We will double up today on the pesticide spray”

The surgeon asked Wolf
if he was ever exposed
in a significant way
to pesticide spray
It was then Wolf remembered what his father used to say

“We’ll double up today on the pesticide spray”

In his garden of eden
everything was free
My friend brought bags
of apples to me
I ate a few, my family too but many many more he ate from his trees

“Let’s double up today on the pesticide spray”

Just before Wolf died
Walter sat by his bed
To his wife Wolf whispered  
these words, he said
“I have nothing to say, tell him to go away”

“He doubled up every day on the pesticide spray”